you really took my observations to task, there.
that's right.
and presenting the figures in a neatly aligned tabular form is indeed preferable for easier comparison. apologies for not laying them out as such!
and hey, i bow to your insightful appraisal; i took the most basic approach but that which you posted - doubling speed values - appears as valid and consistent with my experience of game as anything else; speed is indeed king. my best times have come from using ag-systems and icaras (i shall post them up actually, would be interesting to see how much slower i am than everyone else)
i've found that acceleration doesn't make that much difference when the top speeds are so marked in difference, and the shield strength doesn't make much difference either - i've read elsewhere here that in fact having a higher shield value is detrimental in one aspect in that all shields replenish at the same rate in the pitlanes, so those with bigger shields take longer to recharge; anyway, i rarely hit the dirt, even in an icaras, or a piranha, or an assegai; unless you find yourself in a particularly vicious pack - which isn't that common since your opponents cannot actually use all the weapons you can of course - you should be able to stream through intact on any track, although you may need 1 or 2 detours into the pits.
handling is a close second as an important value in 3, though - assegai negotiates almost everything with comparative ease and allows for less air-braking, which flings arse and drags from what i can tell, thus allowing you to keep speed up by avoiding this. but yeah, speed is king.